Mother's Day Justice 4 The Wrongfully Incarcerated March to Come Through Hudson Valley

More than 90 people have registered to join family, friends and loved ones of the wrongfully convicted for an eight day march from Harlem to Albany starting on Mother's Day, May 8.

So far, 20 walkers are committed to walking for the whole eight days in order to highlight the plight of the wrongfully convicted and to demand specific legislative reforms. Supporter marchers are welcome.

Locally, WESPAC, a 42-year-old social justice organization, will host the marchers for a community dinner on their first day, Sunday, at 6pm at the Eileen Fisher Institute at 1 Bridge St. in Irvington, NY.

The Peekskill branch of the NAACP will host the marchers at 7:30pm Monday at the Kiley Center at 709 Main St. in Peekskill for an open public forum.

Attendees will hear from Yusef Salaam, exonerated member of the Central Park Five, who spent more than five years incarcerated for a crime he had nothing to do with; we will also hear from his mother, activist and lead organizer of this march, Sharonne Salaam.

Jeffrey Deskovic will also serve as a featured speaker. He was wrongly convicted in 1990 at 17 of raping, beating, and strangling Angela Correa, a 15-year-old high school classmate at Peekskill High School, and spent 16 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

Ex-Putnam Sheriff’s Investigator Daniel Stephens, then with the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, fabricated evidence and coerced a false confession from Deskovic that led to his wrongful conviction. He was exonerated in 2006 when Steven Cunningham confessed after DNA evidence ignored during the trial identified him.